


Beloved Daughter

by Skullharvester



Series: One-Shots (Ratchet & Clank) [7]
Category: Ratchet & Clank
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-13
Updated: 2020-10-13
Packaged: 2021-03-07 17:48:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,796
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26981659
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Skullharvester/pseuds/Skullharvester
Summary: It's been years since Qwark and Nefarious have settled down together, and now they have a daughter of their own.
Relationships: Captain Qwark/Dr. Nefarious, qwarkarious
Series: One-Shots (Ratchet & Clank) [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2120196
Kudos: 6





	Beloved Daughter

**Author's Note:**

> Enjoy and have fun! 
> 
> If you liked this tale, please drop me a kudos and/or a comment to let me know if you'd like to see more! 
> 
> Thank you, and have a wonderful night!

* * *

Dr. Nefarious’ burning red optics scanned the living room carefully, but once again, his target was nowhere to be found. He looked in every usual haunt, and with his patience growing thin, he thought he might have an easier time resorting to asking for help, as much as that pained him.

Returning to the kitchen, which he’d peered into numerous times already in his search, he spotted his dubiously loyal butler preparing lunch. The mechanical butler glanced up from his onion-chopping with a bemused expression.

“Yes, sir?”

“Lawrence, have you seen my lay about daughter around recently?”

“Not since this morning, sir.” Lawrence returned to his task of meal preparation, now ignoring his employer’s presence until the doctor sighed and left out the backdoor.

Near the ledge of the in-ground pool in the backyard, the robotic scientist’s spouse, Copernicus Qwark, lounged contently upon an inflatable chair that floated on the water’s surface. Donning a pair of sunglasses, Qwark was drinking a fruit-flavored cocktail held in one hand, and lazily stroking at the water with the other while listening to some relaxing tropical music. 

Nefarious gave him a start when he crouched down to shout, “QWARK!”

The muscle-bound man took several heaving breaths to calm himself down from the near-heart attack he almost experienced, and once he had a grasp on reality again, asked, “What!? I didn’t do it; whatever it was!” 

The doctor rolled his optical sensors. He wasn’t sure what bad behavior Qwark was in denial of this time, but he’d solve that mystery after tending to the current task at hand. “I’m looking for our daughter, you oaf. Have you seen her? I don’t think she’s left the property because I haven’t heard any alarms go off this time.”

Qwark lifted his shades to look his partner in the eyes, squinting as his pupils adjusted to the bright sunlight. “Yeah, she ran by several minutes ago with some tools and a camera.”

“ _And you didn’t stop her?”_ Nefarious hissed.

The larger man shrugged innocently. “She said she was going to the bathroom!”

The shutters that served as Nefarious’ eyelids blinked slowly. “You didn’t think it was _strange_ that she needed all of that stuff _just to go to the bathroom_?”

“Hey, there’s no telling what girls do in there!” Qwark retorted defensively. “I don’t wanna know, either!”

Nefarious extended a claw-like finger and pierced a hole into the inflatable chair Qwark was sitting in, causing it to deflate pretty quickly. It left Qwark scrambling to swim to the top of the water, while his glass sank to the bottom of the pool when it fell out of his hand in a moment of panic.

“Hey, you ruined my drink! And my tan!” the retired hero called out with a pout on his masked face, but Nefarious didn’t listen to a word of it as he went back into the house. Some things never changed, even after they got married a few years back.

–

Meanwhile in the master bathroom, there by the toilet knelt a robotic young lady who held a striking resemblance to both Qwark and Nefarious, with her figure and chin causing most people she encountered to comment that she especially looked like the former. 

She was in the process of adjusting the lens on her camera after turning it on, when she said, “Hey, guys. It’s ya girl Leslie back at it again, and today I’m installing a bidet as an early birthday present for my Squishy Dad. 

“I have no idea what I’m doing, since I’ve never used a toilet for anything in my life, but one time when it was broken, I watched the plumber guy that came over do some stuff, so I’m pretty sure I can figure it out. 

“I can’t see the chat right now, but I’ll check it out later when I get back to my computer. Anyway, let’s get started.”

Without wasting any time or reading any manuals, she immediately got to work unhooking the water supply line, along with whatever else seemed detachable that should probably come off for the do-it-yourself project. She was so engrossed in what she was doing that she didn’t even hear her “Robo-Dad” storming down the hallway.

“LESLIEEEE!”

When Nefarious flung the door open, he was greeted with the image of his daughter sitting there wide-eyed, looking at her father with her wrench frozen in her hand while ignoring the fact that a jet of water was spraying her in the side of her face from where the toilet should have been.

“WHAT ARE YOU DOING!? AND WHERE’S THE TOILET!?” Nefarious shrieked. No doubt whatever audience was watching live from the camera feed was having a ball with this outcome.

Leslie picked up a few miscellaneous pieces: the flush valve, a few nuts and bolts, and the lever. “Right here.” She glanced over her shoulder at the tank, which was now laying in the tub, the seat that was now hung upon the shower head, and the base that was just tipped over behind her. “And over there.”

Her father put his hands together and touched his fingers to his metal mouth contemplatively as he drew in air to his ventilation system. The gust did little to cool the heat that was rising from within. “YOU’RE GROUNDED!”

“I’M ALREADY GROUNDED!” she snapped back, flinging the parts in her hands up in the air like confetti.

“WELL NOW YOU’RE GROUNDED FOR LIFE!”

Leslie sulked, peering over at the camera that was watching her, and her father’s tiff play out. Reaching over, she powered it off without saying goodbye to her audience. She moved aside as she saw her parent’s long legs come into view when he stepped around her to shut off the water supply. A towel that was sitting on the sink counter was tossed over her head, as if Nefarious was too ashamed to even look at her drenched face right now.

“Dry yourself off,” the doctor mumbled, his voice sounding a lot calmer now that he’d gotten all the screaming out of his system. 

While she was doing as she was told, he folded his arms, and leaned his backside against the counter, glaring down at the child he created with his own two hands. “I just don’t get it, Leslie. I built you to be smarter than this.” He gestured at all the damage she’d done with an upturned palm.

Leslie draped the towel around her shoulders and lowered her head. Nefarious couldn’t help but notice that her pout was so much like Qwark’s. He did his best to resist feeling sorry for her. That face always got to him when little else would once he’d had his mind made up on something.

“I don’t wanna be smart just because you uploaded a bunch of knowledge in my head,” she said, pointing at her cranium with a thick finger. “I wanna figure it all out on my own, and how am I supposed to do that if you don’t want me to ever make any mistakes? That’s how people are supposed to learn, right?”

Nefarious sighed and sat down on the floor beside her, in the one spot that wasn’t wet, and rested his wrists on his knees. “I appreciate your sense of curiosity but being able to bypass a lot of that by installing years’ worth of information is one of the perks to being a robot.”

His daughter slammed the back of her head against the wall with a thud, and she stared up at the ceiling exasperatedly. “Being a robot kind of sucks. Sometimes I wish I were a squishy like Dad.”

“Leslie, you know I was a squishy once myself, and it’s not all that great. Trust me: Being a robot is preferable.” Nefarious peered over at the disassembled toilet parts, pointing at them with a jerk of his thumb. “You don’t have to use one of those, for one.”

“I dunno – Dad seems to like it,” the teenager replied.

In a tone that was considered soft for him, Nefarious said, “Your father’s an idiot, dear. It’s awful.”

“If you say so. I still wish I could at least try out being a squishy for a little while like you got to, just to see what it was like.” Leslie scooted closer to Nefarious and laid her head on his shoulder for comfort. He reciprocated by patting her on the head, ruffling her artificial blonde hair. 

They sat in silence for a while, and Nefarious could tell that she was waiting for an apology for the way he’d reacted earlier.

“I’m sorry I lost my temper with you, daughter. I’m trying to get better about that, but it frustrates me when you do things like this, especially without asking for permission,” he explained. 

At least his anger management classes had so far gotten him to a point where he could see when he was being unreasonable, even if that was usually _after_ he had an eruption of emotion. He really was trying to be better, now that he and Qwark had a child. He wanted to be a better parent to her than his parents were to him.

“I didn’t ask because you always say no,” she said.

That was true. He wished that were enough to stop her from doing as she pleased, but it never did. Neither did grounding her for long periods of time, nor taking belongings and privileges away from her. It was very possible that his attempts at parenting weren’t working out because he was ruling the household with too tight of an iron fist.

After doing some thinking, Nefarious posed a solution. “Tell you what: The next time you want to do a project, come and get me, and we’ll do it together. That way, I can teach you myself, and you can learn from firsthand experience like you want to.”

Leslie lifted her head up and smiled at him. “Really?”

He grinned back. “Yes, really.”

“Do you know anything about plumbing?”

Oh, right. Yeah, they probably _should_ put the toilet back together.

Nefarious shrugged. “I’m a genius. I can figure it out.” His daughter’s laughter made his mechanical heart swell with pride.

“You’re the greatest, Robo-Dad.”

The former villain chuckled. “You’re still grounded.”

“Aww…”

“…But I’ve reduced your sentence to the end of this week, so you’ll be able to go see that concert with your little school friends.”

With an excited gasp, Leslie wrapped her arms around her father’s chest, hugging him tightly. He hugged her back, smiling fondly. At first, Nefarious doubted he would enjoy being a parent when Qwark began to frequently drop hints about wanting kids, but despite its challenges, being a father was rewarding. He certainly didn’t regret making Leslie.


End file.
